


Bounties and Other Nonsense

by Elwethe



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, The Mandalorian (TV)
Genre: Cara Dune could bench press the Mandalorian, Descriptions of fighting and combat, Developing Relationship, Eventual Relationships, Eventual Romance, F/M, Fighting, Fleshing out a montage is interesting, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Gen, Humor, I just wanna be cuddled by Cara Dune and Din Djarin, Jealousy, Multi, Not Beta Read, Other, Self Defence, Slow Burn, but do they know what the Force is?, but we're okay, feelings are hard, follows along with the series, force sensitive reader, gender neutral reader, help me, much as I can, reader gets hurt a bit, the slowest of burns
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-10
Updated: 2021-01-17
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:00:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 20,999
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24102514
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elwethe/pseuds/Elwethe
Summary: The Mandalorian hired you to help around on the ship after you help him rebuild his ship and it doesn't feel right when the Child is handed over to the Client.
Relationships: Baby Yoda & The Mandalorian (The Mandalorian TV), Cara Dune/Reader, Cara Dune/The Mandalorian (The Mandalorian TV), The Mandalorian (The Mandalorian TV)/Reader, The Mandalorian (The Mandalorian TV)/You, The Mandalorian/Cara Dune/Reader
Comments: 18
Kudos: 107





	1. A Fight and a Friend

**Author's Note:**

> Hopefully leading towards a poly relationship eventually with Cara, Din and yourself, because I am a weak bi being and want them both
> 
> This follows relatively closely with the series, I've done my best to write a gender neutral reader, please let me know what you think! I haven't written anything in many years, feedback would be absolutely amazing.
> 
> I do not own the Mandalorian or its characters

Weightlessness disorients you before the impact of the marshy ground forces the air from your lungs. Stars dance behind your eyes briefly as you shake your head, trying to right yourself with the world, behind you, the mudhorn bellows its rage and paws at the ground, glaring at the figure still on their feet. The Mandalorian spares a glance your way to ensure you aren’t dead then focuses on the beast as it charges toward him. Even bracing for the impact, he still flies back several feet, grunting as he lands. The creature that was observing this very unfair fight giggles as the container it was in was pulled to the side before the mudhorn could target it, falling back out of sight. You pull your hunting knife from its sheath on your calf, dragging your other hand through your hair, pushing it away from your face, gagging at the smell.

“Do you live?” You called to the Mandalorian who was struggling to pull himself from a large puddle. He didn’t answer as the mudhorn had focused on you and was on its way to expel you thoroughly from its territory, you hoped you were ready with your knife, but there was no telling how thick its hide was, nor its skull. As it made contact with you, roaring at the interlopers trying to take its egg, you grabbed at the horn and stabbed with the knife, trying to at least slow it, if not kill it. The mudhorn reared back and shook its head, hurling you away to the other side of the hollow. You gasp for air on your back where you landed, traitorous limbs just trembling rather that hauling you back into the fight. A heavy crash shook your senses, the Mandalorian must have finally killed the beast. All you could hear was your tight gasps, and his groan of pain.

“Do you?” He answered finally, pulling himself upright, freeing his knife after a final twist in the mudhorn and squelching over to you, extending a hand to help you up. Dizziness sent you pitching forward once you were upright, grey clouding your eyes and pulling at your brain. An arm thrust itself in front of you, stopping you from landing face first in the mud. Blinking rapidly to clear the fuzz and sparkles in your vision, you hung onto the man who supported you, before finally managing to right yourself without gravity pulling you down.

“It... did something” The Mandalorian nodded towards the container where the green child lay unconscious. He pulls his arm from you gently; you had not yet released him after your battle with the planet itself.

“What?” You reply cleverly, trusting your feet enough to carry you over to where the pram was, looking down at the child.

“It held the mudhorn back somehow long enough for me to kill it, I don’t understand how.”

“ _Huh?_ ” Oh, you were a master of eloquence today weren’t you?

The Mandalorian turned away and went into the cave, returning shortly after with the egg in question tucked under his arm. Running your hands over your arms and legs trying to get rid of the worst of the muck, you knew the pair of you were an absolute sight. Wearily making your way back to the crawler, you walked in silence, taking inventory of the bruises that were blooming unseen on your skin, sure that the Mandalorian was doing the same. By the time that you rounded the crag to where the Jawas could see you, you were finger combing your hair, grumbling quietly to yourself.

As the Jawas claimed their prize, you sank down next to the skiff that the Ugnaught was leaning against.

“They were starting to think you weren’t coming back” He grumps at you, before patting your hand to show he wasn’t really mad as such, more worried at how long it had taken.

“They could have driven us closer” You sigh, accepting the cloth he handed to you and wiping first your face clean as you could, before pulling your knife out and cleaning it. The Jawas ignored your complaint, their hands digging into the shell of their treat and the Mandalorian made his way over to where you were sitting.

“I’m surprised you waited”

“I’m surprised you took so long”

Once the beasts had finished eating the egg, there was a flurry of motion and the parts from your respective ships were brought out. All of it was lumped together in a heap, and you spy a bag of your personal belongings buried under a piece of shell. You hadn’t noticed in your fury of them stripping your ship exactly what had been taken and seeing your bag having been rifled through incensed you. Before you could lunge for the closest Jawa, the Ugnaughts hand clamped down on your arm, stopping you short.

“Rage later young one, we will take everything back and sort it out at the ship” His words calmed you slightly, adding “If you react now, we may not get everything back. I have spoken.” It made sense and to further calm yourself, you stalked off, flexing your fingers to stop them from grabbing your blaster and blowing the Jawas out of existence.

Once everything looked to have been retrieved, the Ugnaught looked between you and the Mandalorian and asked who’s ship to go to first. The Mandalorian courteously offered to go to yours, but you declined. The junker of a transport hadn’t been reliable to begin with and you had no clue how to put it back together without delaying everyone considerably. The Mandalorian had the bounty rightfully and he was the one to kill the mudhorn, so it made sense to you to offer putting his ship back together first, offering your help as a member of the guild to help the work go faster. He nodded once to thank you and sat heavily on the skiff, letting out a groan as tired muscles protested this final misuse. Your legs threatened to give way as well, so you sat next to him and leaned back onto some metal sheets, letting out your own grunt as you settled in.

“…’M not moving for a while, sorry” you mutter at the man who looked inquiringly at you. He didn’t answer, nor did you expect him to. He simply looked over at the infant still lying unmoving in the pram. The Ugnaught climbed onto the strange looking beast with the mouth that was too large and arms too small, and set off, pulling the skiff behind him. You didn’t mean to drift off, but you were exhausted from not only the fight with the mudhorn but also from chasing after the Jawas when you discovered what they had done to your ship. Your eyes kept falling shut, despite wanting to keep alert as you didn’t truly know the two companions you found yourself with, but the Ugnaught seemed steady enough and you had enough knowledge of the Mandalorian creed to know you were safe enough. There was also a small whisper inside you that pushes you to trust them and so you slip swiftly into sleep.

“Is it still sleeping?” at the edge of your mind you hear the Ugnaught ask a while later.

“Yes” Comes the answer from next to you and dimly you sense the Mandalorian leaning away from you, towards the pram that was keeping pace with the skiff.

“Was it injured?”

“I don’t think so, not physically”

“Explain it to me again” The Ugnaught asked. “I still don’t understand what happened.”

“Neither do I” came the soft response. “The mudhorn charged me after knocking them down…” an arm gestured towards you, “and then it stopped. Looked like it was still trying to come at me, but then it started…” a sigh of confusion, irritation at not understanding fully. “floating away from me. The kid looked like it was reaching for the mudhorn before it fell back. The mudhorn dropped as well, I had an opening to kill it, so I did.”

“Interesting. Did they see it as well?”

“No., I don’t think so.”

“That’s too bad, they may have a different perspective on what happened.” Silence fell again and you slipped back into dreamless sleep.

A while later, a hand on your shoulder shook you awake. Instinctively you reach for your knife, before remembering who sat next to you and where you were going.

“We’re here” The Mandalorian said to you as he climbed off the skiff. It was dark and you could barely make out the shape of his ship against the lights coming from the Ugnaughts transport. Yawning, you stretched your back, feeling a few satisfying pops in your spine before you joined the Mandalorian. He was staring up at his ship, tension rolling off his shoulders as he surveyed the damage. _Kriff_ , you could see through the ship in parts as the lights reached further with the Ugnaught moving around behind you, starting to unload the parts and set them down on the sand.

“There’s no way we’re gonna get this to work without a full maintenance facility. This is going to take days to fix.” The Mandalorian growled at the carcass of his ship as a light came on behind you.

“If you care to help, it might go faster” The snarky reply make you huff in amusement, causing Mando to turn towards you. You simply smiled at him, clapped a hand on his shoulder and moved to help the Ugnaught with the parts.

“There’s much work to do.” Which was certainly an understatement of the millennium. Most parts were impossible to tell which ship they belonged to, the Jawas had been indiscriminate at taking what they wanted, which was practically everything. Luckily, some parts were more identifiable and those you started separating out. The Ugnaught set a fire going to warm you all against the chill night air and collected the parts that looked worse for wear. He held an arm out imperiously to the Mandalorian, pointing at his bent chest plate. A sigh and then the sound of clips being released. The chest plate was repaired quickly, the Ugnaught knew his craft well and soon it was back where it belonged.

The thin grey light of dawn stained the sky sooner than you expected, and you stood up, shaking sand from your pants, rolled your shoulders to release some tension before moving to the Ugnaughts workspace. After confirming where the food was kept, you grabbed some ration packs and knelt next to the embers of the fire. When work had started, you all remembered periodically to add fuel to the fire, but as you were more absorbed in your own work, it had died down to what it was now. Adding some wood, you built it back up a bit to create more embers, and prepared breakfast for all of you. The pram was close, and you saw the child inside was still sleeping, its twitching the only thing that told you it still lived. That and some gentle snores helped. The Ugnaught sat across from you after collecting a bowl of the simple meal you had made, sniffing at it before nodding and started eating. You held up a bowl to the Mandalorian who hesitated at accepting it.

“I’m… not hungry, I’ll eat later thank you” He tried saying, before a growl worthy of a Loft-cat escaped from his midriff. You grinned up at him before pointing out that the cockpit had adequate protection from prying eyes. As he stalked off, disappearing up the ramp into the bones of his ship, you felt the weight of the Ugnaughts eyes on you.

“Did you see what happened to cause this much slumber?” He looked towards the child.

“No, I wish I had” You confess quietly, it had puzzled you, what kind of creature was able to have that kind of power? Was he one of the Jedi? You had never encountered one of the fabled warriors who had fallen into myth by the time you were old enough to hold a blaster, whispers were all you had of them, who used something called the Force and had weapons of charged particles. The Empire had suppressed the talk of such beings, much as they could, but the outer rim still whispered about hidden masters and secret temples. You shared your thoughts with the Ugnaught who nodded sagely.

“It is a possibility, one I am also considering” He rasped before finishing his meal and returning to his work, leaving his bowl where he put it. You gather it up and started cleaning everything when the Mandalorian returned, handing you his own bowl.

“Thank you, that was kind” He said quickly, before moving away rapidly to help the Ugnaught. 

The work progressed quickly with all three of you working and soon the ship was completed. The child slept the whole time, a fact that worried away at you and definitely worried the Mandalorian, who kept looking over at the small creature, his posture betraying his anxiety. The Ugnaught and you were in the cockpit, he was directing you with repairing the cables under the console while he was testing the switches when the Mandalorian spoke, startling you both.

“What if he doesn’t wake up?”

“He will, just give him time” The Ugnaught reassured him while you connected the last few wires and hitched them back into the console.

“How can you be sure? We don’t even know what species he is” The Ugnaught held up a hand to calm the man and asked him to double check the work in the cockpit as a distraction. You slipped past him before stopping yourself, turning back and rest your hand on his pauldron. He turned his helmet towards you, and you imagined you could see his eyes, even though they remained completely hidden behind the beskar.

“He’ll be fine, from what you described it sounded like he was exhausted, so it may just take time for him to gather his energy back.” You managed to get out, your mouth drying up at the impassive stare he was giving you. An incline of the helmet released your gaze and you quickly left the ship, walking with the Ugnaught who frowned at the startlingly small pile of scrap that was supposedly the parts from your own transport. You had all been caught up in fixing the Razor Crest and forgot to remember the parts for your own clunker. A snarl burst from your throat as you realised the Jawas had not given enough back for you to rebuild, and before you could hold back, you grasped an unoffending coil and hurled it away from you.

“I swear I’ll wring all their necks!” you roar, hurling more metal the way you had come, before sinking to your knees in exhausted anger. The Ugnaught stood next to you and huffed.

“They are long gone by now, looks like they gave us what they valued that egg at.” He growls and pats your shoulder in reassurance. Hearing footsteps behind you, you turn to eye the Mandalorian who was surveying the pile of scrap.

“Jawas” was all he said, but it conveys everything you were feeling perfectly.

“Jawas” you agreed.

Later, you stood in the cockpit while the Mandalorian completed his final checks of the engines, as well as the pressure tests, ensuring that the vessel was space-worthy, feeling useless. Your ship was gone, your bounty was fast asleep near you, rightfully (or not) taken by the man in the pilots’ seat. Your meagre belongings that were all you had in the galaxy lay in an uncertain pile outside, you were still unsure what the next few hours held. Your thoughts swirl, pulling at you as the tests were completed and you all moved to the hangar below.

How were you going to get back to Nevarro, the metal that was left weren’t nearly enough to pay for transport, let alone food. Your stomach twisted at you, your heart feeling heavy while the Mandalorian thanked the Ugnaught for his help. You walked down the ramp dejectedly to sift through your bag, a tiny pile of credits lay in a pouch at the bottom the Jawas must have missed somehow, giving you an inkling of and idea. You stand, turning to look up at the two talking in the hangar, in time to hear the offer of employment from the Mandalorian.

“-and I can pay handsomely” he finished as you came back up the ramp.

“I am honoured” The Ugnaught said simply, “but I have worked a lifetime to finally be free of servitude.”

“I understand. Then all I can offer is my thanks”

“And I offer mine, thank you for bringing peace to my valley” the Ugnaught gestured past you and you all looked out at the rocks and soft light painting them. He then moved past you, patted your arm gently and mounted his blurrg. “And good luck with the Child, may it survive and bring you a handsome reward” he nodded at the two of you. “I have spoken” the Mandalorian nodded back at him before turning to you.

“I am also grateful for your help, and it seems to me that now you need mine. I could use a crewmember; do you want the work?” he said quickly before you could open your mouth to beg him for help. Your eyes prickle at the offer and smile widely, accepting with a nod, unsure that you could speak at that moment. He walks down the ramp with you, and you snatch up your bag as he sifts through what remained, grabbing some compressor coils and spare wires. The two of you help load the remaining parts back onto the skiff, the Ugnaught asked for them, saying he could use the parts on his farm. Mando then showed you where to stow your bag before you both moved to the cockpit, preparing to leave. He runs through the start-up sequence and quickly took off, putting in the coordinates for Nevarro. You sit in the co-pilot’s seat and watch the child breathe.

“I want a word with Greef Karga as to why he handed out multiple fobs, I would never have touched this job if I’d known it was taken already” You say quietly into the silence, remembering how you have slipped into the cantina after your latest job, wanting a drink before asking for your next job.

“I’m going to have a similar conversation with him” Mando replied, leaning back in his chair and reaching for the pram in which the child still slumbered. He shook it gently at first, then a touch more firmly when there was no response from the occupant. A tiny sigh escapes him as he turned back and flicked more switches. You gazed out the window to watch the stars, never tiring of the sight in all your years as a hunter, before a noise captures your attention, the child was awake finally.


	2. A Wrong and a Right

You hadn’t noticed him much while he was awake, and he was simply even more adorable now that he was upright. His big brown eyes blink up at you, before reaching a three clawed hand towards you.

“Hey there sweet thing” you coo at the creature, scooping him up and holding him close, completely enraptured, forgetting how badly he was wanted by those who hired you. The child chirped at you and presses his hand to your nose in curiosity. “I’m going to find him some food, do you know what he eats?” you direct this to the Mandalorian who you sense is watching you from the corner of his helmet.

“He ate mudjumpers before, I’m not sure what else though”

“I’ll have a rummage if that’s okay?”

A beat goes by while he considers letting you loose on his ship.

“…Sure”

You head down the ship to where there was a tiny kitchenette, it contains a hotplate and a sink behind some metal plating, everything was stored orderly and you quickly found what you needed. You yourself weren’t hungry but it had been quite a few days repairing the ship and the kid hadn’t eaten or drunk anything in the time that you were with it, so by any galactic standard it must be ravenous. You find some dried meat and break apart some pieces to feed the wee beast carefully, hoping it wouldn’t turn feral and try to eat you as well. The meat didn’t last long, but seems to satisfy the child, and he lets out a happy belch, before nestling into your chest.

“Okay you womp rat, what now?” You murmur to him, rocking side to side gently, taking slow steps back to the cockpit. Humming an old tune you vaguely remember from childhood, you place the child back in the pram, turning it slightly so you were able to keep an eye on him. The child’s ears were most expressive, twitching this way and that as you hummed the simple melody at him, and his eyes seemed to sparkle at you. _Kriff, this thing is cute_ , you think before leaning back and rubbing a hand at the base of your neck, trying to ease the sore muscles there. You’d always had a tendency for aching muscles after a job, more so than other hunters you encountered which seemed rather unfair. The Mandalorian for example simply sat at ease in his chair, hands resting easy on the controls, showing no signs of the strain he’d been under the last few days, looking almost like a statue with how little he moved.

Navarro was reached quickly, and a chime sounded, alerting Mando to a message from Greef Karga. While you were both watching it, the child somehow slipped out of the pram and climbed onto the console. You only realised he’d pulled off a piece of the console when Mando chided him for thinking it was a toy and puts him back. The child’s ears drooped as he watched the man glance at him to make sure he was staying put and cooed softly. _I wonder how much Basic he understands_ , the thought passes idly through your mind watching him. The child was an infant for sure, but the fob did also tell you that he was somehow 50 years old, so surely, he must have picked up something by now.

Touching down just outside of town, Mando turned to you and hands you a small pouch holding some credits.

“Can you get some more supplies, and whatever else you may need, I’m not exactly equipped for someone else on the Crest” you take the money from him, tucking them into your belt and start down the ramp. Mando walks next to you, the child on the other side is quiet, ears still sad and his eyes while still bright, are downcast. Your heart feels heavy at the sight and something inside you is screaming out the wrongness of handing the child over, yet you keep your thoughts to yourself, knowing it isn’t your place to speak against this job, distasteful as it had turned out to be.

The nest time you see the Mandalorian, you’re in the cantina, having that long waited for conversation with Greef Karga. He’s explaining how ‘The Asset’ was of such importance to the client that multiple fobs were given out and that you were simply another body on the trail when the door hisses open and conversation ceases. Without looking you know that it’s him, no one else has that effect simply by standing in the doorway, though having gotten to know him slightly, you think he may enjoy the effect of silencing conversation and he _definitely_ has a flair for the dramatic to him. Yet when you slide around the table to make room for him, you finally see him and understand why the cantina was so quiet. His new armour looked _good._ He carried himself taller as well, not that he hadn’t before, but now he had more confidence swirling around him.

“Ah, Mando!” Greef chuckles. “They all hate you Mando, because you’re a legend!”

“How many had tracking fobs?”

Greef’s face froze for a second, before sweeping the bar with distain.

“All of them, but none of them closed the deal! Only you.” Sitting so close, you could see the sheen of sweat spring up on the man’s brow as he talked. “Only you, and with it, the richest reward this parsec has ever seen!” He waved at the seat “Please sit, my friend.” Greef flapped his other hand at you, trying to get you to leave.

“They’re working with me.”

Mando swung his rifle off his shoulder and set it down carefully before sliding in next to you.

“I see. They’re all weighing the Beskar in their minds, but not me” Greef confided in a not quiet whisper. “No, I for one, celebrate your success, because it is my success as well.” He leaned back, satisfied, reaching for his pocket. He flashed the steel at you and internally you seethed, knowing the man was rewarded even though you weren’t, you had actually done something for the job, not him. Then again, Mando _had_ given you credits to go shopping with.

“Now, how can I show my gratitude to my most valuable partner?” Greef’s gaze flicked towards you but he directed his loud voice towards the bar, clearly trying to gauge the reactions of the other hunters that were desperately trying to listen without showing it.

“We want the next job.”

“Next job?” Baffled, he glanced between the two of you. “Take some time off, enjoy yourselves” he implored, before lowering his voice and suggested the Twi’lek healing baths.

“We want the next job.” Mando hadn’t moved since he sat down, staring the man down, impassive to the suggestion of a break. You didn’t remember the last time you had taken a proper break but knew that you wouldn’t have been able to afford the Twi’lek baths by yourself, let alone anything else remotely luxurious. A tiny selfish part of you feels a hint of glee at working with someone who was expensive to hire.

“Sure, fine.” Greef didn’t bother keeping disappointment out of his voice. “You hunters like to keep busy, right. Well, these are all far away.” He shook three pucks into the space between you.

“The further, the better” Mando scooped them closer and you heard the flat tone in his voice. He wasn’t happy, which made the sunken feeling in your chest press down harder. After studying the pucks, he chooses the Mon Calamari and grabs the rifle. You’re halfway out of the booth when he pauses and asks what they’re going to do with the kid. Greef didn’t know and his expression darkened, before suggesting that the Imps are reported to the New Republic, further suggesting a camtono of spice to forget. Your leg is starting to cramp as you’d frozen in place when Mando turned around, but luckily that’s when Mando finally leaves, allowing you to follow.

“Hey” Greef calls behind you, turning you stare down at the man. “Tell him to rest, he’s earned it.”

You don’t bother dignifying that with a response, just quirk an eyebrow at him and leave.

Luckily, the ship is close outside the walls of the town, and you had already purchased what you’d needed for travelling on it. Blankets, some extra clothing and rations were at the top of your list of priorities and they had been safely stored away before you went hunting for Greef Karga. The silence is deafening in the cockpit as you side into the co-pilot’s seat, the Mandalorian is running through the pre-flight checks, powering everything up and is about to engage the engine when he stops. You see that the ball the kid had pulled off the end of the lever is still missing from its proper place. Guilt twists your innards, and your mouth dries up immediately. _This isn’t right._

Silence hung in the air, heavy and thick, pressing you down into your seat and the moment seemed to stretch on for an eternity. Mando picked up the piece the child played with and stared at it, rolling it between his fingers before slowly threading back to its rightful place. He stared at it for a while, while you feared you might break from the tension, but then he started moving again swiftly, shutting everything down again.

“This isn’t right” He breathed your way as he turned and headed for the ladder.

“Definitely” you agree, springing to your feet to follow. Odd how he echoed your thought from just before, but you dismiss the thought, chalking it up to you both feeling uneasy about the situation.

Before you left the Crest though, he stops, turns and puts his hand on your shoulder. He took a breath in, shifting his weight on his feet, almost awkward. You gazed up at him, hoping that you were looking at him in the eyes, but you couldn’t be sure.

“I know I just hired you, but this isn’t what you signed up for, a-and I understand if...” He trailed off at the expression on your face.

“Are we just going to stand here, or are we going to free the kid?” You reach up to give his hand a reassuring squeeze. “Don’t worry about what I signed up for, this is the right thing to do, we can figure it out later”

He explained where the client was located and how he had a bad feeling about it as the two of you walk back through the dusty streets, doing your best to look inconspicuous, just two hunters finishing up a job. In a way, you were.

Mando walked ahead once you reached the building, nothing to distinguish it from the others around it. He led you to the back, where there was a dumpster filled with various waste. Your heart sank through the ground when you saw the pram and the child’s robe, carelessly tossed inside. The man at your side didn’t say anything, but he didn’t need to, seeing his gloved hands curl into fists was expressive enough. Clenching your jaw to ensure you didn’t say anything unnecessary, breathing deeply through your nose, you scouted the rooftops to find a vantage point where you might collect more information, such as the layout of the building, who was inside and where.

“They’re trying to extract something from him” Mando said, putting down his rifle, voice clipped and strained through his vocoder.

“Then let’s get him back.” You snarl, pulling your dagger from its sheath.

You remain above, leaping from building to building while Mando went below. He strode up to the front door and knocked, before ripping off the gatekeeper droid’s head. He left to circle around the back and find a way inside while you waited for the troopers to come investigate. Two come out, as you’d expected and drop, knife landing in one’s spine. He drops immediately while the other stares at you in shock for a second, giving you a very wide opening to pull your knife free and shove it into his throat, he died with a gurgle and fell back. You check the hall inside, waiting for more to come out. Hearing nothing, you pull the bodies inside where they won’t be seen by passer-byers. Keeping your knife free, you loosen your blaster in its holder and check the first room in the hallway. There is a trooper in there, who halfway raises his blaster before your knife lands in his chest, you leap across to him and catch him just before he falls into a pile of armour and alerts everyone to your presence.

An explosion sounds deeper in the building and you grin, knowing that Mando is now inside as well. In the room across the hall is only storage, and you duck aside as you hear footsteps. The door to the other end of the hall swooshes open and you ready your knife, preparing to strike.

“We are under attack” An accented voice whispers. “I apologise for the delay, Dr Pershing is extracting it now” That gave you pause, _extracting what?_ And you listen harder, hoping for more. Whispering of a robe on the ground and gentle tread tells you where the person has gone, down the last door in the hall, you hadn’t had a chance to check there yet. Daring to look out from your hiding place, you don’t see anyone, and when you look to see where the accent had gone, it’s down stairs that look dark and feel menacing. You feel a pushing from that direction, something whispering to you that the child you’re looking for is not that way, it’s deeper in the complex. The room at the end where the accented man came from is large, and has three troopers milling around, like they’re unsure if they were meant to follow the man, or investigate the sounds of fighting coming from a hall to the right of the room. Your presence startles them, and one trooper gets taken down by the time the other two react. Ducking under a blaster, you hit the closer trooper in his side with your knife, twisting so his body is the one hit by the remaining soldier. He fires again as you drop the body, firing your own blaster into him. He drops as a wave of pain floods your senses. Your side feels numb and comes away bloody as you press your hand to it.

“Ah, shit.”

Crouching by the desk for cover in-case more troopers come, you pull at your shirt, lifting it to examine the damage. You’re bleeding from the wound, but it doesn’t look deep, you should be able to patch it up with the medical supplies on the ship, so long as you don’t take too long to get there. Tearing a strip from a downed troopers sleeve, you wad it up and press it to your side while doing your best to look down the hall to anticipate anyone coming down it. Hearing a blaster fire, you take off, peering round the corner, before following the sound of a man begging for mercy. You catch up to the Mandalorian as he fires on an IT-O that was about to reach a bench where the child lies, unmoving. He turns swiftly and pulls the shot from his blaster just enough so that it misses you. You raise an eyebrow at the man and turn to the cowering doctor that was by some barrels. Crouching by him, you rest the tip of your knife on his cheek and snarl, asking what he did to the child.

“I protected him! I-I protected him, if it wasn’t for me, he’d already be dead” The man stammers, holding his hands palm outwards, cringing in his fear. “Please, please, please” Sensing nothing but sincerity from the man, you hit him over the head with the pommel of your knife, knocking him out, but not killing him. The Mandalorian has already freed the child and you see the swish of his cape disappear round the corner where you entered. Standing up, you feel a small flood from your side, and you scan the room for some bacta, or _anything_ to help you not keel over that moment. Spying an medpack you wrestle with the lock, before opening it, locating a tiny syringe of bacta and jab it into your side. Dropping the needle, you rush after the Mandalorian, ignoring the fallen doctor and the small amount of blood you left behind.

Following the sounds of blasters, you catch up to him in a storage room, just as he takes down a trooper with the business end of his Amban rifle. Following into another corridor, you take down the trooper that tried to sneak up on Mando, freeing him to take down the one blocking the passage with his flamethrower. The trooper shrieks as he dies, and you know that sound will haunt your dreams for a while. You step over the crackling body and come to the large room near the front of the complex. As you walk through the door on the far side opens and two troopers walk in, blasters raised, demanding you freeze and to put your hands up. Hearing noise behind you, you turn to see two more approach from behind, blocking the way out.

“Wait. What I’m holding is very valuable. Here” With the pause that gives them, you both fire simultaneously, dropping the troopers where they stood. You shake the sweat from your eyes as you leave, the child safely wrapped in Mando’s arms.

“Are you hurt?” His free arm moves, like he’s about to reach out, steady you like after your first fight together. You wave him away, there’s no time for this, the little one is who matters most, and you all need to leave _now._

“One of them got me but that doesn’t matter, let’s get back.”

He stares at you for a second before holstering his blaster and strides away, leaving you to catch up. You’re panting though by the time you get to the main street and miss the first noises of the tracking fob surrounding you. By the time your tried brain understands the significance of what is going on, you notice that there are quite a few hunters flanking you and see more than a few blasters being pointed your way.

“Welcome back Mando” Greef’s distinctive voice calls out as he steps into view, clearly having waited for the right time to be revealed. “Now put the package down.” Commanding. Expecting to be obeyed. Out of the corner of your eye you see Mando’s hand hovering over his blaster and your own drifts downwards, other hand pressed to your side, doing your best to seem merely irritated, rather than wanting to sink to the ground and cry from the pain.

“Step aside, we’re going to my ship.” Equally commanding, even if he was quieter.

“You put the bounty down, and perhaps I’ll let you pass.” Softer, tone saying _trust me, you want to do what I say_ , weaselling its way into your head.

“The kid’s coming with me.”

Doing your best to stay still, you feel the press of many eyes on you, and the hunters are too close for comfort, _there’s no easy way out of this Mando, what is the plan?_

“If you truly care about the kid, then you’ll put it on the speeder, and we’ll discuss terms” The speeder is next to you, and the droid manning it looks over at you, waiting for a command.

“How do I know I can trust you?”

“Because I’m your only hope.” It’s impossible to tell what they’re feeling, both men are stiff in posture, waiting for the other to back down. Mando looks past you at the speeder, then slowly makes his way to it. Tension pushes on your shoulders as the hunters move in closer watching, hawkeyed.

That’s when everything breaks loose.

Mando pulls his blaster and fires, diving into the speeder. You pull yours and down a few people, shuffling close to the speeder for cover. You heard his harsh command for the droid to drive, and clumsily leap into the speeder as well before you’re left behind. A strangled whimper forces its way out as you land on the Mandalorian’s legs, his armour digging into your wound. Pushing the pain to the side as much as you can, you keep firing trying to bring down the people attempting to kill you. As the speeder moves down the street, you and Mando bring down more hunters, and you start to feel the pressure on your shoulders lighten, perhaps you might break free and escape. That is, until the droid piloting the speeder blows up, searing your eyes with the heat and light. Swearing, you duck down and rub at your face, trying to clear your eyes so you could see again.

Silence.

Mando loads his rifle and disintegrates several people, causing some to run, you hope they’re gone, but doubt makes you believe they’re regrouping.

“That’s one impressive weapon” Greef calls out again once Mando hasn’t fired for a few seconds.

“Here’s what we’re gonna do. We’re gonna walk to my ship with the kid, and you’re gonna let it happen”

“No. How about this? _We_ take the kid, and if you try to stop us, we kill you and we strip your bodies for parts.” At that, Mando rears up, takes out the people circling the speeder and shots ring out again through the street. You faintly hear Greef calling at the hunters to not hit the target, your eyes have cleared, but your side is really hurting now, and you pant, trying to draw a full breath into your lungs, hearing your distress, Mando engages his flamethrower again, sweeping his arm in a wide circle, forcing back the press of bodies. It dies quickly though, seeing this, you try to sit up, and manage to squeeze off a few shots before feeling an impact, sending a wave of numbness down your arm. The bacta you had injected in your side wasn’t enough for two wounds and you thought your side had started bleeding again when you landed on the Mandalorian. Either way, you hurt, badly.

Faintly, you hear the child coo, and manage to raise your head to find Mando gazing down at it, while a rain of blaster fire flies over the speeder. Yet, somehow, some of the fire isn’t aimed at you. Mando and you look up as you realise this, to see angels. Wait, no. _Mandalorians._ They’re flying gracefully, firing at those pinning you down and soon you’re able to sit up best as you can and scoot off the speeder, shooting a few best as you can.

“Get outta here! We’ll hold ‘em off!” A heavy duty looking Mandalorian calls to you, firing off multiple rounds a second with his cannon.

“You’re going to have to relocate the covert”

“This is the Way.”

“This is the Way.” They nod at each other and Mando scoops up the child, his other arm reaches out to tap your uninjured shoulder. “Can you make it?” You nod, not trusting your voice, and the two of you make a run for the Crest. You stumble over the loose rocks on the way, but manage to keep upright, he helps you stagger up the ramp and once you’re inside you drop to your knees, keening from the pain.

“Hold it Mando” Cool metal presses to your temple and you curse internally, your knife is too far away and your vision is swimming in front of you. “I didn’t want it to come to this. But then _you_ broke the Code.” Mando’s helmet tilted as he looked between you and the guildmaster. His arm twitched slightly, and you managed to see the whipcord fly out, hitting the switch for the carbonite gas. Greef flinches in shock at the same time you duck down into a ball, ignoring the fresh wave of pain and nausea. You hear a blaster fire, Greef grunt and sense his body flying backward. Mando waits for the gas to clear before rushing to you.

“Are you okay?” he asks, concern flavouring his voice.

“’M fine, just get us outta here!” You wave him away weakly, clawing at the deck to stop yourself from vomiting. He hesitates, but heads for the cockpit at the “Go!” you spit in his direction. As the Razor Crest takes off, gravity swallows you and you succumb to the pain and dark at last.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry


	3. A Bar and an Offer

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took a while!

Pain.

Your eyes don’t want to open as your consciousness drags you from the dark. The lump of flesh that carries you around is aching in many places and feels like it’s burning in others. Darkness threatens to swallow you again and you groan weakly, pulling your arm from a parsec away to scrub limply at your face. Hearing a coo beside you, your eyes flutter open to meet large brown orbs. The child’s hand presses to your nose again and you can’t help but smile at the tiny creature.

“Welcome back”

You raise your head to locate the Mandalorian, but before you see him your vision swims with grey at the effort. A pounding headache sets up a beat inside your skull and you wince, your brain thumping around when your head falls back.

“I must be alive, if I were dead, I’d be surrounded by beautiful serving boys and girls on a nice remote planet” you mutter, drawing a huff from the man standing over you.

You sense that you’re lying on a cot and while you’re feeling sorry for yourself, the pain is significantly less that when you passed out before. Investigating the sites where you were shot, you find bandages lying over flesh that was no longer bleeding. _Feels like a cauterizer had been used_ , you think to yourself, opening your eyes again to look up at Mando, trying to thank him with your eyes.

“I’m fresh out of servants, but I can offer you a remote planet?” an amused tone shocks you, did this Mandalorian have a sense of humour? “We’re heading to Sorgan, it looks quiet enough to lay low for a while.” You’d only heard of the planet in passing, from what your memory tells you, it didn’t have anything distinctive about it, and was a bit too far out of the way for many bounties to try to hide there. “We’ll be there in a few days; you need to rest a bit longer.” He paused, sounding pained. “Can… you watch him for a bit? I-I know you just woke up, but…”

“You need a break.” You finish for him, smiling gently.

“I need the fresher and the little womp rat hasn’t let me alone since we left Nevarro”

That gives you a chuckle, and you manage to pull the womp rat in question to you.

“Thank you, for not leaving me behind” You manage quietly, as the Mandalorian started moving away, causing him to pause.

“I needed you” he managed, before fleeing up to the fresher.

Warmth crept into your cheeks and the child pressed his hands to them, babbling. You catch the hands with your own, shaking idle thoughts from your mind. _I’m his employee, and he needs me to work for him and look after this young one._

In the days that followed, you heal enough to be drawn into chasing the child round the ship in a highly entertaining game of hide and seek one night. His happy gurgles and patter of feet settle something inside you, curling a tendril of contentment in your belly. However he does have an unfair advantage over you in this game and you usually find him when he’s tired of one hiding place and is trying to scuttle to the next one, then he does his best to hid behind Mando’s cloak while the poor man is trying to pilot and ignore the giggles coming from his back. He feigns innocence when you ask him loudly if he’d seen the little mudjumper, you both pretending to ignore the increasing in volume gurgles.

Din could feel his heart constricting at the grin you gave him and feeling the child dig his claws into his back made an answering grin break out on his face, even though you couldn’t see it. You plop down onto the co-pilot’s chair, announcing that you were going to sleep soon. That cause a flail under Din’s cloak and the child launched himself at you, doing his best with his eyes to convince you that no he wasn’t tired so you shouldn’t be tired and therefore could keep playing. The child quickly squeaked with outrage as he realised he’d been tricked as you hauled him off for a bath that had been waiting for him since before the start of the game.

Din idly flicked a few switches to check the time remaining in the log and leaned back, listening for the sounds of a struggling child who would not be bathed quietly. Smiling softly, he knew that he’d made the right choice in hiring you. He had been angry at first when he realised that you had been tracking the child as well, but once you had backed off and offered to help rebuild the Crest, he’d felt a strange tugging in his chest. He felt it now, hearing you singing as a distraction for the child, and wondered if he was getting sick. He’d have to find a medic on Sorgan, hopefully there would be a town large enough for one he could go to, he hadn’t had an illness for a while, and it was just his luck he was coming down with something when he was on the run.

He did know that he’d felt panicked when he’d gotten the ship into hyperspace and found you in a scary pool of blood. There were several scrapes and bruises on you, and the two blaster hits looked nasty. Luckily, you had bought a semi-decent medkit when restocking the Crest earlier, and he was able to cauterize your wounds enough to stop the bleeding, inject enough bacta to start the healing and wrap the areas in bandages. Din did his best to focus on your injuries, they certainly needed his attention, but once you had been cleaned of blood, he found himself distracted, remembering seeing you a few times before in the cantina, either collecting/handing over a bounty puck or drinking. He hadn’t taken much notice of you then, much as he had noticed anyone else in the building, but now you worked for him, he felt himself wanting to get to know you better.

Neither of you mention how your wounds take less time to heal that what they should have.

Sorgan took both much time and not enough to get to. You’d felt caged a bit in the ship and were eager to explore, but at the same time nervous about leaving hyperspace and being in the open again. Mando set the ship down in a clearing near a small settlement, both of you staying put in your seats even after the engines powered down. Feeling a coil of something winding tighter in you, the tension only broke when the child reached for you from the Mandalorian’s lap. You smile down at the tiny creature, scooping him into your arms and cuddling him close. He cooed happily and showed off the silver ball to you.

Mando informed the two of you he was going to scout around, see what he could find in the village and for you to stay with the ship. He then leans in a bit and you’re fairly sure he directs this to the child.

“Don’t touch anything.”

“You do know we’re going to come with you right?”

He simply stared at you, at least, that’s what you thought he was doing, for all you knew he could be rolling his eyes, wondering why the universe saddled him with you and the child.

A beat.

Then two.

“Ah, what the hell.” He strode away, heading down to the cargo hold, not waiting for you to catch up. A grin tugs at your lips and you hurry to catch up. The child wiggles more and more in your arms as you walk down the ramp, and eventually you have to put him down rather than risk dropping him. _Fine, he can walk then,_ you think, allowing yourself to breathe deeply on this new planet. Fresh clean air fills your lungs and you enjoy the warmth of dappled sun on your back. As the child is truly tiny, the pace that you normally walk at slows to a crawl. Just as well, now that you’re actually able to walk and stretch freely without worrying about hitting a part of the ship, your side and shoulder pull slightly at you, and you knew that your reflexes would be slower as a result for a time. Hopefully, no bar fights are initiated anytime soon.

After a short period of walking, you make it to the village, and without needing to speak aloud, you and Mando head for the cantina, rather than look for any bulletin boards advertising work or lodging. Word of mouth always seemed more reliable somehow, more alive. The cantina is open, warm and inviting and the smell of cooking food makes your mouth water. The people here seem relaxed, and don’t give your small party too many strange looks, more smiles at the small one than anything. Apart from the lothcat, but they seem to snarl at any anything.

Mando gently places the child onto a seat, and the two of you sit either side of him as a woman walks up to you, smiling.

“Welcome travelers, can I interest you in anything?” she looks curiously at the child smiling between you. Mando orders some soup for you and the little one and declines when she asks if he wants anything.

“That one over there” he says quickly, before the woman could leave. “When did she arrive?”

You turn and look in unison with the woman at the person in the corner who starts slightly and looks away when she sees you all looking at her. As the woman tells you she’d only been around a week or so, you study her. Dark hair and eyes, with muscles that told you she was no stranger to fights. And she was _stunning._ She glances back to find you still watching her. Hurriedly turning back around, face reddening at being caught staring, you catch Mando putting down more coins on the table. The proprietor startles at the credits, adding she thought the woman didn’t look like a log runner, and that she’d bring something called spotchka as well. _Must be this planets version of alcohol_ , you muse, before realising Mando had frozen. You follow what you hope is his line of vision and see the lady of interest to you both had vanished. Disappointment thuds low and hard in your chest before you squash that down.

The Mandalorian is on his feet and moving before you realise, throwing a ‘key an eye on the kid’ to you over his shoulder. With that, he strides away, throwing the fabric aside and leaving.

You’re still sitting there offended that he didn’t bring you along on point when the soup arrives. The proprietors face is a mix of confusion to see him gone, but keeps her mouth closed when she sees your expression. A mouthful is all you manage when you faintly hear the grunts of a fight start up outside. The child looks up at you, and burbles softly, before climbing down from his seat. Resigned, you stand to follow, scooping up your bowl of soup and handing him his tiny bowl when he turns to look up at you.

“Let’s go rescue him.”

Outside, your heart seems to stop when you see your Mandalorian being thrown to the ground. He hits it hard, legs taking a good second to follow his body. Twisting, he fires up his flamethrower, but the woman merely kicks his arm aside like she had nothing to fear, kneeling over him to grab at his throat. His free arm flies up, hand pushing at her throat and then he turns somehow, pinning her for a mere second before she throws him off her.

This is doing things to you that you didn’t think were possible. Heat is rising in your face and you quickly take a sip of soup to calm your racing nerves. As you lower the bowl, somehow in sync with the small one at your side, they both slowly look at you, panting, blasters in each other’s faces.

Mando breaks the silence.

“You want some soup?”

A grin breaks out on the woman’s face and she holsters her blaster, pushing herself up.

“Cara Dune” she holds an arm out to you.

“Yen Lano” You reply warmly, grasping her arm as long as you dared. Which wasn’t long at all and you hope that she isn’t offended by how quickly you let go. Strange, even after you’re no longer touching, you can still feel the warmth from her gloved fingers. She turns to the man she has just been battling furiously.

“Mando” comes the gruff word, earning another smile.

“Seriously?”

_Oh help._

Back in the cantina, you sit together and listen to her talk about being a shock trooper for the rebels. How after the Empire fell, her job turned into something she didn’t recognise. Up close, you can make out that the mark on her cheek is actually a tattoo, not dirt, and that you could very easily get lost in her beautiful, sparkling, dark eyes. Wait... shit.

Forcing yourself to look away, you finally drink the rest of your broth before it goes cold, letting the various flavours play over your tongue. Cara sips her soup as well and looks between you all.

“Look, I knew you were Guild” Her expression darkens slightly. “I figured you had a fob on me, that’s why I came at you so hard”

“Yeah, that’s what I figured” Mando replied dryly.

She smiles at you and stands.

“Well, this has been a real treat, but unless you wanna go another round, one of us is gonna have to move on.” Her smile broadens and her eyes flash at you. “And I was here first.” 

Your tongue unglues itself enough to blurt out “We technically outnumber you”

A laugh sends flutters into your belly. “Please.” Then she’s gone.

“ _We outnumber you?_ You didn’t do anything. _”_ Mando stares at you, his voice sounding odd. Wait, was he laughing at you? Prick.

“I didn’t want to show you up out there” You smirk, leaning back to stretch.

That gets a huff and he turns to the child, who’s happily watching everything. “Well, looks like this planet’s taken.” He turns to look where Cara had vanished to, fingers drumming softly on the table. “We’ll stay here tonight, resupply and figure out our next move in the morning.” You nod in agreement, content to simply sit and enjoy the warmth of the room for just a while longer. The child loudly slurps at his second bowl of broth, eyes darting between you. As soon as he’s sure he has your attention, he burbles away, using a three clawed hand to make his point. His over sized ears twitch as well, and he just looks so comically cute that you can’t help but laugh softly.

“Oh really? What happened then?” You jokingly continue.

More noises.

“You don’t say? That’s impressive”

“Wait, what is he saying?” Mando sounds very confused.

“Oh, he’s telling me how fearsome a fighter he is, and how he didn’t want to embarrass you as well out there.”

A pause, in which Mando is so still, you’re not entirely sure he’s breathing.

“Hilarious.” Flat, monotone and certainly unamused.

“Please, I’m the funniest being you’ve encountered” You beam at him, teasing gently, looking down to boop the child on his impressively tiny nose. That got you a giggle and a waved arm trying to return the favour.

That evening, you’re tinkering in the Crest with your blaster, giving it a good clean down, enjoying the warm air coming in from the main ramp. You can hear Mando tinkering with the support strut on the side, he’d explained that it had been partly eaten by a ravinak and that tonight was the first chance he’s gotten to do some maintenance on it. You’re starting to work on the sights for the sniper configuration when you hear voices talking nervously to the Mandalorian. You’re about to go investigate when the side ramp lowers, revealing him and two others in simple clothing. They’re looking dejected and don’t seem to see you, as they’re first focused on Mando, then each other.

“Come on, let’s head back” you hear one say as they start walking away. The other throws his hands up in what seems to be frustration.

“Took us the whole day to get here” You look at Mando, holding your hand up to stop him from walking all the way up the ramp. “Now we have to ride back, with no protection, to the middle of nowhere…” You’re pretty sure that this is a guilt trip tactic, but you and Mando exchange a glance that speaks volumes. _Hours away and middle of nowhere? Interesting…_

“Where do you live?” Mando turns back to the men who haven’t walked very far at all.

“On a farm, weren’t you lis-” The guilt tripper says somewhat angrily, breaking off when he catches sight of you.

“In the middle of nowhere?” Mando prompts, but they aren’t picking up what he’s putting down.

“Yes”

“You have lodging”

The other man seems a bit brighter and realises what Mando is getting at.

“Yeah, absolutely!” Hope stains his voice, and they both look at you in awe. Makes you wonder what they’ve gone through to get there and what has been happening to their farm.

“Good. Come up and help” He turns away, strides into the Crest where he opens up his cache of weapons, starts pulling them out. He directs you and the men to grab some weapon and ration crates and to load them up on their transport, before asking for the credits. Caben and Stoke (you had introduced yourself, like a polite person, not an absolute uncivilised cretin like some people) watched as he disappeared into the trees, heading back to the village. You shrug when they look at you, he was obviously going to get something extra with the credits, and he’d explain later. Hopefully.

When he does reappear, your chest constricts almost painfully. Cara Dune smiles at you from his side and gives the farmers a once over before introducing herself. You notice the bag of credits tucked into her belt and something pangs through you at the sight. You know that you were only the helping hand around the ship, but he did say that you were also going to be paid handsomely a while ago. But… then again that was before you decided to right a wrong and rescue the young one. She hops onto the speeder with a light grace that you felt you couldn’t ever hope to achieve and you clamber up after her, grabbing the child from Mando when he’s passed to you and hold him close, while Mando settled in next to you. The two farmers are quiet and sit at the front, programming the speeder to go back to where they came from.

It’s not the roomiest of spaces on the back with the extra crates that Mando had asked you to pack, and thus your legs can’t help but bump into both hers and Mando’s. They don’t seem to notice though, only adjusting to become more comfortable when necessary. You can hardly focus when they talk about the job, running off raiders and having a place to stay that’s far from civilisation.

“I can’t imagine there’s anything living in these trees than an ex-shock trooper couldn’t handle” Mando says, his tone is somewhat teasing, and Cara simply looks at him in response, giving nothing away. He leans back, the child leaning back into your chest in an echo, with Mando’s arm passing over your head to rest on the side of the not-speedy-speeder. Holding yourself very still, your stomach is a mess of feelings, was it the soup? You didn’t think you were sick, no it must be the way that the child leaned up against you to look at the stars overhead, and definitely not how Mando is leaning back, his side open to you, trusting.

“So, what’s your deal?” Cara is looking at you, dark eyes seeming to pierce your very soul.

“Me?” You squeak, feeling pinned under her gaze. “I-I’m just another hunter”

“Ah huh” She seems unconvinced and leans forward, eyes intent, her leg pressing more into yours at this action. You gesture to the man beside you and explain how you met, feeling more and more tongue tied. She’s smiling gently at you though, and honestly, you thought that that wouldn’t help, but it seems to calm your nerves enough that your heart rate starts to slow. You mention how you are better with your knife that your blaster, and she jokes how everyone is better with a blaster than a stormtrooper.

Quiet falls over you then, and the men upfront seem to have fallen asleep, as one starts snoring. Loudly. You catch her eye and you both snicker quietly, before she wiggles down a bit in the transport, most likely trying to get a bit more comfortable.

“Need some rest at least if we’re fighting raiders in the morning” She murmurs quietly, giving you one last smile before closing her eyes and seemingly instantly falling asleep. You manage to get a touch more comfortable and start leaning back to also try to rest when your shoulder blades come into contact with a warm arm. You freeze, not daring to move, hardly breathe but there’s nothing from next to you, no retreat or pulling away. Doesn’t stop you from taking what feels like hours to relax enough to sleep though.

When you do come to, there is a warmth pressed against your side that is certainly not a blanket or heater. Your head is resting on a shoulder and there is a weight over your back that implies that Mando’s arm is no longer resting on the speeder. Heat is radiating from him and you know that the position you’re in should be uncomfortable but somehow, you’re feeling rested and more relaxed than you had been in years. He’s not awake though, you can hear a faint rumbling coming from his centre that you think may be a snore, but you aren’t sure.

Wait, where was the little one? You had fallen asleep with him cradled in your arms and you don’t feel his reassuring warmth. Your eyes open in a panic and you sit up, looking around for him. Mando’s arm falls away with a thump and your shoulders protest the loss of warmth, but you’re too busy to notice much more than that.

The child is right next to you, watching the woods slide past. You worried for nothing, and start to nestle down again, before remembering how you woke up. A blush colours your cheeks as you sneak a glance through your lashes at Mando. He appears to be still sleeping, though the rumbling has stopped. It seems to be very early morning, and the gentle light filtering through the trees must have been what woke you. Gently, you rest back against the Mandalorians side, slowly getting more comfortable again while keeping an eye on the small green troublemaker. Before you can help it, you drift off again. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So we have a name! Honestly though was super hard not writing Lando, what are your thoughts?  
> Also the conversation with the child is one I have with my cats a LOT so threw that in there for some fluff


	4. A Village and a Fight (part one)

The transport stopping is what wakes you again, wakes the three of you at once. The child is already awake, leaning towards a horde of children who are barrelling towards the transport. They gather at the side, all intent on the child. You can’t help but smile at the light shining in their eyes, it’s been a while since you’d seen kids this happy.

“Well, looks like they’re happy to see us” you can hear the smile in Mando’s voice. Cara agrees with him as you look over the village. People are congregating on you, smiling widely, all eager to lend a helping hand with the boxes piled haphazardly on the transport. Cara grabs her bag, while Mando takes only his rifle, and you double check the blaster and knife you keep close. As you walk up the main path, you’re struck by both how poor these people are, but also the simple beauty in the place. They may not have much in terms of credits, but they were definitely a community. It’s also obvious that they didn’t have much spare space, awkwardly gesturing to a barn that had some hastily cleared space set aside for your small group. A family with a young one offers up their crib for the child, clumsily explaining how it wasn’t needed anymore.

As you’re getting everything settled, a young woman with a large pile of blankets in her arms smiles briefly at you and places them gently to one corner. She starts pulling at a cord, causing an opening to appear in the wall of the barn.

“I’m Omera” She offers you, not quite meeting your eye.

“Yen.” You try gently “How long has this village been here?”

She’s about to answer, but is stopped by Mando appearing at the entry, a box of ammunition in his hands. She gazes at him, cautiously assessing before asking him to come in.

“I hope this is comfortable for you, sorry that all we have is the barn” She avoids your eye again by staring at the Mandalorian’s back.

“This will do fine”

Somehow you feel awkward, like you’re intruding as she explains about the blankets and turn to shuffle about some extra knives you’d bought, when you hear a very light step behind you. Both you and Mando spin, instinctively reaching for weapons, but the would-be threat is a young girl, one you’d seen before at the transport, who bears a remarkable resemblance to Omera.

“This is my daughter, Winta” Omera explains, pulling the girl to her, eyes bleak for a moment. “We don’t get a lot of visitors around here. She’s not used to strangers” She brushes her hand over the girls’ hair. “These nice people are going to help protect us from the bad ones.”

“Thank you” The girls voice is strained slightly, as though she’s still shaken by the way you’d both reached for your weapons.

“Come on Winta, let’s give our guests some room.” A warm smile at that, directed at Mando as they walk away, and something feels odd inside your chest.

“Cute kid” Mando says quietly as he finishes sorting through the box.

“You think all kids are cute” You point out, even though you only have the small green one as an example of kids that Mando found cute. A titled helmet your way was his only response. You finish arranging the knives to your liking on your belt, you’d gotten two of them on Nevarro, but hadn’t a chance to grab them when you’d went back for the kid. They fit snug across your lower back, easier access, though your favourite knife was still going to stay on your calf where it belonged. That task done, you headed out, leaving the Mandalorian alone.

You don’t have a specific goal in mind when you leave the barn, though you suppose that you could explore the village, see the extent of the defences. Which turn out to be non-existent. Kriff. Slowly, you walk around the edge of the village, eyeing the krill ponds and simple fences. Cara joins you at one point and the two of you walk quietly, taking stock of what you were being asked to defend. Once you’d completed your circuit, you stand together in companionable silence for a moment. Before you can speak however, the gang of children run up to you, begging to see your weapons. You exchange an amused glance with Cara before she shows off her blaster and you pull out your knives to a chorus of ‘ooooh’ and ‘have you _killed_ people?’ _Honestly,_ children were always the bloodthirsty ones. 

Later that afternoon, the villagers organise a group meal, it’s simple fare but it’s good. You can feel the warmth and love baked into the bread, which makes it all the more delicious. It’s a community meal, and you’ve somehow definitely-on-accident sat yourself next to Cara, who smirked gently at you when she saw you sit down. Mando was there as well as was the little one, though how Mando was going to eat with all these people around, you weren’t sure.

Sure enough, not five minutes pass before he flees back to the safety of the barn, you were too far to hear what he had said to Omera, but she followed him with her eyes, mouth pressed into a firm line. Watching as she puts her own bowl down and fetches a tray, you realise she’s getting food for your boss. That’s a task that you should have thought of, helping your employer instead of putting your own needs first. Something twists and tugs at your stomach, and you can’t finish your food, the bread churning into a wet wad inside your mouth. Feigning a cough, you spit it out and discreetly throw the mush away, hoping no one saw you.

Cara did see though and follows your gaze to Omera. There’s a flatness in your eyes that she doesn’t like, not when she’d admired the spark in them before when you had shown the kids your knives. She also wasn’t impressed with the waste of food, going hungry had been a given with the rebellion, and as a result when there was food available, she ate to give her muscles the fuel they needed. She however could understand this time though, she remembered how the Mandalorian had leaned so trustingly back, exposing his side to you and this morning, she’d briefly roused enough to see the two of you asleep on each other. She also knew that much as she liked your smile, she wasn’t planning on getting involved with that particular flare-wing nest. Giving herself a mental shake, Cara pushed thoughts of your smile away and ignored the part of her mind trying to conjure what Mando’s smile might look like. Take that thought, put it in a crate and shove it to the back of her brain.

Later, after questioning the villagers as to where the raiders come from, you set out with Cara and Mando, walking in companionable silence. You and Cara are watching the trees, looking for sentries while Mando is studying the ground, studying the tracks that were easier to follow than a Bantha herd. It’s quiet, thought there are enough animal noises and birdsong that you’re not entirely on edge, and can appreciate the beauty of the light on the trees. There’s a sort of natural T intersection in the trees and you can hear the Mandalorian pressing his vambrace.

“About fifteen or twenty of them came through here on foot” He gestures down one path. “And something big, sheared off those branches” You follow where he’s pointing and see that there are some broken and scraped trees high up. Cold runs down your back at the sight, you had a bad feeling about this. Loosening your knives in their sheaths, your ears pricked for the slightest sound now as you follow the other two further into the forest.

“AT-ST” Cara says flatly, and you look to where she and Mando are crouched, staring at the large footprint.

“Imperial Walker. What’s it doing here?”

“I don’t know” They stood in unison, looking down the clear path of destruction from the walker. “But this is more than I signed up for.” You move next to them, catching sight of Cara’s face, it’s closed off, her eyes hard.

“The villagers must have known about this, why didn’t they tell us?” You query, feeling something empty inside you start gnawing away. Rogues and scoundrels, you could handle, but a walker? That was a death-wish. And what if these raiders had more than one walker, but stepped in the footprints of the other to hide their numbers how sand people did? You gave yourself a metal shake, trying to stop the downward spiral from pulling you too far down. The Mandalorian sighs and turns back towards the village.

“Let’s go talk to them” With that simple sentence, he walked off with you and Cara exchanging a cautious look before following him.

“Bad news. You can’t live here anymore.”

Confusion and concern cross the faces of those facing you, flavoured with disbelief.

“Nice bedside manner” Cara mutters at Mando, catching your eyes and rolling hers.

“You think you can do better?” He challenges her with a tilt of his helmet.

“Can’t do much worse” You hide a smirk at her words, the villagers are looking to you for answers and he isn’t helping the situation. “I know this is not the news you wanted to hear,” Cara stepped forward addressing the people. “But there are no other options.”

Caben looked up at that, his expression darkening. “You took the job!” Agreement flowed around him.

“That was before we knew about the AT-ST” Cara shot back, not backing down, but that statement was met with carefully blank stares.

“What’s that?” Caben responded, trying his best to look puzzled. That irritated you, why were they still trying to lie?

“The armoured walker with two enormous guns that you knew about and didn’t tell us.”

 _That_ caused a stir and caused several people to fling pleas at you, begging for help. Inside, your gut was roiling, you wanted to help these people stay safe in their village, but it wasn’t possible with that walker stomping around.

“We have nowhere to go” Omera’s voice cut through the hubbub, she was staring unflinchingly at the Mandalorian, even when Cara responded with the fact that Sorgan was in-fact, a big planet.

“My grandfather seeded these ponds” Stoke said softly, laying on the guilt with his soft eyes.

“I understand, I do. But there are only three of us.” That was met with confusion again and the fact that there were more like twenty people was offered up. “I mean fighters! Be realistic” Cara you could tell was growing more frustrated, her bedside manner deteriorating quickly. “I’ve seen that thing take out entire companies of soldiers in a manner of minutes” She got out over cries of willingness to learn. You eyed their arms and legs, yes they were fit and in moderate health, but none of them had the stocky build of a brawler, some could almost be lean enough to learn the necessary swiftness of hunting, but they were just… people, families earning a living on a backwater planet.

“We’re not leaving.” You almost flinched at the ferocity in Omera’s voice.

“You cannot fight that thing.” Cara sighed, stubbornly holding on.

“Unless we show them how” A quiet voice from beside you broke the stalemate and made you very glad it wasn’t you who said anything as Cara fixed Mando with a steely gaze. “They’re not going to leave and we’ll just waste energy trying to convince them otherwise.” He pushed away from the doorframe he was leaning against and looked at Omera, who was still staring at him. “We’ll get some rest now, then in the morning we’ll start training.”

Warmth crept back into her eyes as she nodded before giving you a cursory glance and sweeping away with Winta. Taking a deep breath, you shook the nerves away from your hands, they had gone sweaty during that confrontation. You were not too good in crowds, especially those that were having bad news delivered and having reached a conclusion put you at ease.

You ducked back into the barn and scooped up the little one who had been doing his utmost to see what had been going on just outside. He chirped at you softly, reaching for your face and you held him close, gauging if he needed to be changed or just held. His small warm body pressed close and he tucked his head under your jaw, your eyes close as you take the small comfort of holding him. Deep breath in to settle your nerves and… wait, he did need to be changed. His eyes sparkle at you as you hold him further away, nose wrinkled.

That night, as you’re sitting by the fire in the middle of the village, completely ruining your night vision by gazing into the fire, Omera sits next to you. Her eyes flick to you briefly, trying to find a way to free the questions lodged in her chest. The silence between you stretches as you wait for her to speak. Eventually though, it’s almost uncomfortable to sit there and part of you wants to flee back to the barn, to feign sleep for a few hours until you dropped into true sleep. Just as you’re about to do so, she finally shakes herself and clears her throat.

“How long have you known him?”

Ah, so your gut instinct was right.

“I’ve known of him for a while, but personally, not long at all.” You say quietly, still gazing into the fire. Something inside you wants to tell her everything, but all your training as a hunter compels you to be quieter, draw out the woman into offering the questions she really wants to ask, rather than the polite small talk questions that need to be asked first. She surprises you though.

“Is he with you?”

“No.”

“Her?”

“No, met her yesterday.” Resist the choice to be mischievous and say that the fight could count as flirting, push down the longing to brush your knuckles against theirs before tangling fingers together.

“Does he look like his son?” that question gave your imagination the image of Mando with the same face as the child with ears to match. Grinning at the thought, you shake your head.

“Nah, couldn’t fit those ears in that helmet anyway.” She chuckled slightly at that.

“The baby’s mother...” She trailed off expectantly, looking at you.

You meet her gaze finally. “No idea, he was just a job to me in the beginning. We had been hired to take him to some… bad people.” That was definitely putting it simply, but she didn’t need to know about the Imperials. No need to scare her with the Empire, even though it had fallen. You could sense her curiosity, it almost burned with its intensity on your skin, but you stood then, a bad taste in your mouth from thinking of that fight. Without thinking about it, your hand pressed to your side where you’d been shot and her eyes followed the motion, eyebrows raising in unspoken questions. She’ll just have to be unsatisfied, you think, turning and heading to the barn to chase sleep on your bunk.

“You got two problems here. You got the bandits, and you got the mech.”

It was sunny, and you’d been brainstorming with Cara and Mando earlier when you’d woken up. A rough plan had come together, and you all felt confident heading to meet the villagers at the edge of the ponds.

“We’ll handle the AT-ST” He continued, gesturing towards the trees. “But you gotta protect us when they come out of the woods. And I don’t have to tell you how dangerous they are.” Worry crosses their faces, before changing back to hard eyed determination. “Cara Dune here was a veteran. She was a drop soldier for the Rebellion and she’s gonna lay out a plan for you, so Listen. Carefully.”

“Now there’s nothing on this planet that can damage the legs on this thing, so we’re gonna build a trap.” She turns to the pond closest to her. “We’re gonna need to dig real deep, right here, that that when it steps in, it drops.” Earlier she had explained that she’d been on Hoth and fought the Empire there and seen how Luke Skywalker had flown around the AT-AT’s and taken out their legs. She’d also been on Endor’s moon when the war had finally been won with what she had called Ewoks.

“The three of us will hit their camp, provoke them. That’ll bring the fight out of the woods and down here to us.” Hearing her words, and even knowing the plan, you still felt bolstered.

“We’re going to need you to cut down trees and build barricades along these edges.” Your turn to speak. “We need it high enough so that they can’t get over, and strong enough so that it can’t break through.”

“Okay.” The Mandalorian said. “Who knows how to shoot?”

Everyone avoided your eyes at that, except Omera, who raised her hand while staring straight at Mando. She quickly realised that no one else raised theirs and put her hand down self-consciously.

“What about knives?” You ask then, to which everyone put their hand up.

“As in fighting, not on krill.” Hands went down. Oh no. This was going to take some work.

“Right now, the priority is getting those barricades and ponds dug, so let’s get moving.” Cara waved at the group. “Sort yourselves out as to who’s doing what and let’s go!”

There was a minor muddle as they decided who was doing what, and then with grim determination got to work. You decided to go with those cutting the trees, while Cara and Mando supervised those who were digging. It was a very short walk and they looked to you expectantly. Internally rolling your eyes, you got to work. Searching for the perfect trees you directed some older men to start cutting and organised the younger people to haul the cut trees where they were needed, before grabbing an axe to start chopping the trunks into points. Winta came up to you then, offering rope that her mother had given her. Smiling, you tasked her and some others to start tying the wood together, forming them into the start of the barricade.

Taking a moment to breathe and roll your shoulders free of stiffness, you looked around at the flurry of movement around you. Caben and Stoke were up to their shoulders in the pond nearest you, trying to dig deeply without putting their faces into the water. Omera was directing some women to carry crates into place to reinforce the lines of where the barricade would go. Cara and Mando were talking to each other, occasionally pointing towards the woods as they fleshed out the plan for the attack. You shook a few more kinks free from your neck and shoulders, before bending back to the logs with renewed vigour.

That night, while everyone was sweaty and tired, there was a vibrant energy to the place. There were more smiles and jokes being strewn about. There was some more of the local alcohol called ‘spotchka’ being handed round, and while it was rough as anything going down, it warmed you inside. Cara groaned as she sat next to you, neither of you commenting on how sweaty you both were. You’d have a wash before you slept, but for now you were content with warming yourself by the fire and drinking. The two of you sat for a while just drinking peacefully, before Mando joined you, sitting heavily with a soft grunt.

“Spotchka?” She grinned at him, offering her cup. He just stared at her and sighed, while you hide your grin in your own cup. You’re feeling warm inside, and you’re not quite sure how to process what’s going on inside your stomach at the sight of her smile, or in the way he’s leaning back on his hands, casting glances over to where the child was playing with the kids. It’s companionable, and that terrifies you. How long would this last? Certainly, the other two didn’t feel anything for you, you would have noticed. Right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry this took me so long to update! Writers block hit me hard, but after seeing the trailer for season two, my muse came back! Who else is excited?


	5. A Village and a Fight (part two)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The big battle is here! There are descriptions of folk dying so *voice from Labyrinth* Beware, Beware.....

The next day is when the final touches are put on the barricade and you start training the villagers. Mando is off with some training them on shooting, Cara is running drills with spears and you’re locked in a staring match with Winta.

The other kids are standing in a circle around you, intent on watching what’s going on.

You feint left with your knife and Winta falls for it, freezing as your blade stops at her throat, her own knife held weakly in her hand.

“Watch my eyes” You instruct. “It’s a giveaway of where I’m going to actually hit you. It’s a tell that’s important to learn.” With that you strike at her again and this time her knife comes up in time to block yours. You could easily have defeated her with your superior muscle, but you were doing your best to move slow, and show her what she needs to know.

“Use your size and speed to your advantage.” You address the rest of the kids. “If someone attacks you, they’re going to expect you to freeze up. Make noise, thrash around and make yourself a hassle to capture. If you can, throw whatever comes to hand at your attacker. Doesn’t matter if it’s your mother’s sewing or father’s woodworking, it’s better to be alive and make something right later, than be dead.” They all nod solemnly at you with that piece of information stored in their minds. You then show them the vulnerable spots on the human body that even small fingers can push into and cause pain. A few adults stop what they’re doing and listen in at this part, keen to learn how to defend themselves without a gun or spear.

“Eye’s are most vulnerable, so that’s why they’re the most protected, but ears and necks aren’t always protected. If someone grabs you, try and jab a thumb under their arm, there’s a nerve there that can really cause some damage.” You gently raise Winta’s arm and demonstrate carefully, causing her to jump back, startled.

“See what I mean?” You smile at her. “You alright?” As the day goes on, you regret teaching the kids as they take your advice to be loud to heart. You didn’t know that they could be so loud for so long. Even the child is doing his best, though his war cries are a fair bit quieter than the rest of the kids.

A series of gunfire captures your attention, and you look over to see Omera hitting the makeshift target perfectly, before smiling up at the Mandalorian. As he nods at her, a heavy sinking sensation settles into your chest. Honestly though, you should have seen this coming after her questions the other night, of course she was going to smile at him, he was helping save her village. Doing your best to shove the feeling down, you turn back to your gaggle of fighters, missing Din turning to look searchingly at you. You also miss Cara looking up from her fighters, seeing the way Mando was looking at you and doubling down on her instructions, pushing the spears harder.

The next few days pass in similar manner, with the villagers growing more confident in their fighting abilities. The kids are going to be holed up in a hut far from the fighting, but you’d wanted them to know how to protect themselves should there be sneaky raiders looking for leverage. The heavy feeling in your chest grows each day, seeing Omera smile at Mando and seeing him spend time with her, that tears at you inside. Luckily, you think to yourself, Cara likes spending time with you. The two of you chat each night, and you found it easier and easier to be near the impressive woman. Especially when the villagers all but poured spotchka down your throats in gratitude, the alcohol untied your tongue and you found yourself confiding in her about your childhood on Jedha before it was destroyed in a horrific ‘mining accident’. Her own childhood matched yours, she’d grown up on Alderaan.

“Fuckin’ Imperials” You snarl, emboldened by the drink warming your belly. “They take and take and take and don’t give two shits about the lives they’re supposedly improving. I mean, what have the Imperials ever done for us?”

Cara snorted. “Fucked up the galaxy?”

“Destroyed planets?”

“Created more warlords?”

“Destroyed the Jedi?”

“Industrialised countless worlds?”

The two of you continued on in this vein for some time, eventually slowing down and simply drinking in silence as you both contemplated the numerous life choices that brought you to this moment, sitting side by side on a backwater planet.

Eventually it was time. The villagers had learned as much as they were willing, much as they protested to keep learning, you could see in their eyes that it was enough. They were farmers first, not battle-hardened warriors. You’d gone to find Cara who had been doing a last-minute check of the perimeter and were walking back to collect the Mandalorian when you saw him walking out of the barn with Omera. You hadn’t been close enough to hear what they were saying, but you could see in her face that she wasn’t ready for the conversation to end and that she would rather that you weren’t there. She caught your eye then, as Mando joined you, and you almost flinched from the heat of her stare. Yet something inside you reminded you that you were a bounty hunter, you’d fought worse than her, and your spine straightened as you stalked off with the others.

So why did you still feel hollow inside?

Jogging lightly through the trees, you made your way to the raiders camp. There were two sentries at a small fire, but they were more focused on their drink, than on keeping an eye out, clearly foolishly confident that they were the big bad on this world. Silently, you drew your knife from your calf and slit one’s throat while Mando grabbed the other one and pulled him down. He died with a quiet choked off gurgle as the three of you darted for the encampment. There was still guttural laughter coming from the bigger fire you could just see through the trees; no-one had spotted you yet.

The three of you drew up behind the entrance to the main tent, you standing by Cara. At the same beat, she and Mando pull back the cloth and enter, you keeping an eye on the fire, slowly backing into the room. There aren’t any sounds behind you, until you hear the beeping coming from the detonator that Mando must have just placed. Some dark figures rise from the fire and start making their way towards you. Quickly, you fully enter the tent, alerting the other two to the approaching threat. Cara and you position yourselves either side of the entrance and Mando readies himself in the middle of the tent.

Two Klatoonians enter the tent and you waste no time in grabbing the one closest to you, his body stiffening in surprise, then sagging as your knife finds its mark, slicing easily through the rough fabric covering his throat. You hear Cara grunt as her mark drops, but your more immediate focus is the two more raiders coming into the tent. There’s a flash of silver in the corner of your eye as the Mandalorian grabs one as you square up with the other. The hate in his eyes widens to fear as Cara kicks his legs out, and you quickly finish him off.

There’s a brief moment where you catch her dark eyes and you grin at each other, both relishing the excuse to exercise your muscles.

Then the next lot of raiders arrive, alerted by the noise of the fighting. You’re rushed by one and swipe at him with your knife, causing him to leap back. One of his buddies comes to his aid and crowds you, trying to intimidate you with his bulk. He doesn’t expect you to step inside his space, nor does he expect you to have pulled your blaster and shoot him in the belly. As he drops, you shoot at the first one to have attacked you, missing and hitting the side of one of the brightly lit tanks inside the tent. The raider throws himself at you, knocking you down. He snarls as he wrestles with you, trying to subdue you, but you manage to get leverage from the ground and kick with one leg, twisting your hips and dropping your other leg to throw him to the side. You’d dropped your blaster when he’d tackled you, and as Cara finishes with her attacker, she scoops it up, throwing it to you with a barked “Yen!” Snatching it out of the air, you strike the Klatoonian across his temple in one fluid motion, leaving him senseless on the ground.

Howls alert you; they all know you’re here. You catch Cara’s eye before looking to Mando, you need to get the rest of the raiders to the village to topple that blasted AT-ST before you all die. The beeping from the detonator is reaching a frenzied pitch and you know that you’re very quickly running out of time. Mando shoots at the back wall of the tent, while you hide from the blaster fire coming from the entrance.

“Come on! I’ll cover you” he calls to you and Cara. At that, she bursts from her cover, and runs at the wall. You pop up as well, squeezing off a few shots at the raiders as you follow her, while Mando aims a bit more carefully than you. Cara barrels right _through_ the wall, holding her arms up to protect her head from the wood. You and Mando are hot on her heels when the detonator goes off, throwing you all to the ground.

Stars flash briefly in front of your eyes as you try to clear your vision from the ringing, shaking your head to reorient yourself with the dirt underneath you.

“I hope the plan worked” She gasps as you gingerly pick yourself up off the ground, hitting it twice in a row has caused a deep ache to start thumping in your side and shoulder. At that though, a horrifying rumble starts up, and red eyes glare from the dark.

The AT-ST.

Cara and Mando scramble to their feet at the same time the hateful eyes rise to their full height, guns whirring into place.

“Go! GO!” Mando shouts, and the three of you start sprinting for the safety of the village, dry needles shifting underfoot. The thudding footfalls start, and you feel that deep pit of fear rise up into your throat. _Here’s hoping that they have worse aim than stormtroopers,_ you think wildly, leaping over roots and bushes. Then the AT-ST’s gun start to fire, bright flashes almost herding you, taunting you as it followed you. The heat from the gun burns at the back of your neck, nipping at your heels as the three of you run as hard as you can.

Your world burns down in your mind to this moment, aching feet as they carry you through the woods, your side feels like it’s on fire and you can’t seem to draw enough air in through your lungs. White sparks flare at the corner of your eye and all of you cry out at how close that shot was. But it wasn’t close enough and you keep on running.

Somehow, you are faster than that mech, and you all make it back to the village, sliding in between the barricade.

“This is it!” Cara calls, “Once that thing steps into the pond it’s going down!”

You quickly catch your breath, ignore the throbbing at your side and ready your blaster, catching the eyes of Cara and a tilted helmet, nodding at them to show that you’re okay. In no time at all, the red eyes show through the trees as the mech draws close, menacing its way close to the water.

“Just a few more steps” Mando whispers to you and you flash a grin at him, ready to see it fall.

Yet it didn’t. It seemed to look down at the water, and pulled itself back from the edge, as though it knew of the danger. A beat of silence while you all took in the sight.

“It stopped” Cara’s voice sounds bitter, confused.

Blindingly bright light switches on from the machine and sweeps over the area. You barely hear Mando’s hissed ‘get down!’ over your heartbeat in your ears. You crouch down, pressing yourself into the cover of the barricade while it deliberated over the structure.

Red flashes and then a hut explodes behind you, throwing sharp hunks of wood around in a fury.

“Caben! Stay there” You heard Omera scream from somewhere at the same time that Cara shouted for everyone to stay in their positions. The AT-ST shifts one foot over, squaring up with the village when you hear the war cries of the Klatoonians.

“Open fire!” Cara yells, releasing the pent-up anger and frustration of the villagers. Blaster fire is exchanged, and several raiders fall, but another hut explodes with a roar of sparks. Aiming carefully, you drop a few thugs trying to come from the sides.

“We gotta get that thing to step forward” you hear Mando say to Cara.

“I’m thinking,” comes her response, brow creasing in concentration. You can sense Mando turn to you, but you’re focusing on getting as many raiders as you can.

“New plan.”

“What did you have in mind?”

“Give me the pulse rifle”

“We’ll cover you” Mando taps your back and points down the centre line where you see Cara heading for the AT-ST. In sync, the pair of you start shooting, taking out the raiders as they appear from the brush. That gets the mech’s attention, and its evil eyes swivel to face Cara. As it fires, she leaps to the side, crashing into a pond.

“Come on, you got this” You hear a whisper next to you and you spare a glance at Mando, but he’s staring out at Cara. It seems though, that there is a never-ending wave of raiders, they just keep coming and you look back in time to see Cara shoot at the AT-ST, before focusing on the rest of the raiders.

“It’s now or never, go!” Omera’s voice cuts through the thunder of the battle, and several villagers surge forward, you leap up as well, eager to get close and personal with your knife and some raiders. As you fight, indiscriminately slashing and hacking, you see more fire from the AT-ST aiming for the pond where you last saw Cara. But whatever stress she’s under right now, you need to keep the Klatoonians from getting to her. One rather burly figure hones in on her position and you snarl at him to get his attention, throwing your knife at him. It sinks into his upper chest, moments before you launch yourself at him, drawing one of your other blades from your back. He manages to shove you back, rough hand slamming into your chest. As you stumble back a step, a flash of red flies past you and hit his face, sending him to the ground. You turn to smile weakly at Mando before a huge crashing sound whips your head back to the fight.

The AT-ST has fallen.

A dark streak sprints past you a second later, launches himself onto the AT-ST’s side and hurls a detonator in through the viewport. You dash back for the cover of the barricade and throw yourself past just as a huge explosion rocks the village. Cries from the raiders come as they realise they lost their advantage and you hear them run for the trees.

Weak laughter and cheers catch your ears next and that grows in volume. Hands pull at you, helping you up and your surrounded by smiling faces, grinning people clap you on the shoulders, ruffle at your hair and you feel a fair few people try to hug you.

Gently, you disengage, and head for the pond where you see two grimy warriors laughing together. Well, technically you see Cara laughing, but you hear that chuckle from Mando just fine.

“Yep, that went well.” You grin at them, they’re absolutely soaked, but look so beautiful to you at that moment. Cara and Mando exchange a look, then they both reach up and pull you into the water.

“Ack!”

“Well, you couldn’t be the odd one out, Yen” Cara teases, flicking water at your indignant spluttering. Retaliation is absolutely necessary, and you lunge for her, determined to dunk her. She’s laughing now and easily avoids you, confident that she has the upper hand. And well, she does, but you’re not going to tell her that. At that thought though, a wave of exhaustion swamps you and you realise the adrenalin that you’d been relying on since the woods is running out.

Mando’s already climbed out of the pond and is woefully trying to wring out his cloak as you swim up to where he’s standing. Without any words, he leans down to offer you a hand on getting out. As you take it, he pulls you up with a strong grip, and he seems reluctant to let go immediately after. He only does when Cara surfaces and extends her arm, silently asking for assistance.

As the three of you head back to the village, the people notice you and cheer, surging out to meet you. The children have resurfaced, and the child is with them, held safely by Winta. Mando pushes through the crowd to meet them, concern in each line of his body. He traces one oversized ear gently, making sure that the little one is unharmed. As though anyone in that village would dare let that happen.

Achingly tired as you are though, there is still work to be done. There are bodies littering the place and quite a few banged up folk who need tending. Plus, the huge wreck of the AT-ST in the pond, along with a few houses that are little more than piles of wood and rope, still burning. You join some others who have started a bucket line, passing water to where it’s needed, dousing the fires thoroughly. Rubbing some grime from your face, you start to head back to try and organise the dead, but Cara stops you, her warm hand on your arm, dark eyes warm and concerned.

“Rest, we can handle it in the morning.” Before you can stop yourself, you lean your head on her shoulder, and feel her strong arms encircle you. You wrap one arm loosely around her waist and sigh, feeling yourself deflate just a little, relaxing into the hold. She smells of sweat, water and mud, and you know that you smell the same, but right now, honestly? You couldn’t bring yourself to care.

She was holding you, and that was enough.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Was the Monty Python conversation too much?


	6. A Village and a Fight (part three)

The next day, your muscles protest as you drag yourself from your warm blankets. It’s early, and you can hear the child’s raspy snore through the quiet. Mando’s not in his bed though, but a quick glance around shows he’s standing by the door, idly running his hands along his rifle. As you rustle about, prying your eyelids apart he turns and offers a quiet ‘morning.’ Not feeling human enough yet to warrant a verbal response, you flap a hand at him, stifling a yawn with the other.

Pulling on an outer layer over your sleep wraps, you join him, looking out over the still village. Some of the mess has been cleared away already, but there’s still a lot to do. Most of the bodies have been haphazardly dragged to one spot, on the other side of the ponds, far from everyone. It’s quiet in only the way very early morning can be, and you’re under it’s spell, enjoying the peace of the moment.

Din was at war.

His heart and head were disagreeing with each other on how he was feeling and trying to convince himself he was simply sick was no longer working. Not when he found himself longing for Omera’s gentleness, your humour or Cara’s bravado. He’d tried to sleep after the battle had been won and everyone staggered off to bed, but his mind whirled, seeing images from the battle. Cara running for the AT-ST, Omera shooting the raiders and keeping morale up, or you fighting the raiders. One image his extremely helpful brain kept conjuring up though, was the absolute wicked grins you and Cara wore when you’d been pulled into the pond and were both trying to conquer the other.

He barely dared breathe as you stood next to him, hair crinkled from sleep, eyes still blinking slowly. Surely you could hear his heart pounding from where you were? His hands, normally so sure and steady with rifles, able to end life if necessary, were starting to sweat and Din felt an uncharacteristic shakiness radiating from his core. As the two of you watched the sunrise, the village slowly roused from slumber, sounds of cooking from a few huts and some children emerged, looking for the best spot to play.

Omera came into view, carrying some tools, looking like she was going to get started on digging. She almost pauses, eyes raking over the two of you and you only notice the tightness of her mouth because you were watching for anything. You wanted to trust her, wanted to be accepted by her and you knew that she had a good heart, but something small inside you kept you wary. Was it the amount of time she’d spent with Mando? Was it the way that he followed her with only his helm betraying his gaze, the rest of his body in trained stillness? You wouldn’t even know how to say anything, half thought out conversations died lonely choked-off deaths in your mind. Usually you were more sure of yourself, but since Nevarro and coming here to Sorgan, your words were prone to tangling themselves on your tongue, so you retreated into yourself where it was safe.

That day was a grim one. Omera was the first one to start digging graves, but she wasn’t alone for long. Mando didn’t need any words or encouragement, you’d exchanged a glance with him before heading inside to change before joining Omera beyond the boundaries of the village. Despite not eating before-hand, you were glad you hadn’t, trying to handle the bodies of the raiders on a full stomach wasn’t at all appealing. The other villagers didn’t take too long to join you, Cara trailing along, she knew what she had to do, and she had the strength to do it, being quickly put to work lifting the bodies from where they had fallen.

With everyone helping out, the work didn’t take as long as you’d thought, and soon the battleground was only rough ground. The At-ST was a bit of a challenge and so it’s mutually decided that the work on that would be taken slowly, the tech scavenged safely and put to good use. It’s pulled from the pond and left to drain for a day, before you carefully clamber in with a light, looking to see what you could pull from it. There are a few components that survived being blown up and drowned, and a vast majority that didn’t survive a grenade directly to the circuits. It’s still able to be used in patchwork ways, and there were a few villagers with clever fingers who are able to integrate it into their simple way of life.

You find everyone slowing down as the days pass. With the important work done, time could be taken with rebuilding the ruined homes and reseeding the ponds that had been emptied for the battle. It’s good honest work and your muscles ache pleasantly each night, helping pull you down into slumber before you worry yourself into sleeplessness. The villagers are happy with you as well, because with the extra help, they’re able to catch up on everything that had been pushed to the side for the battle. Clothes are mended neatly, a clay deposit is discovered and carefully extracted before it's crafted into crockery and amongst it all is that aching space growing between you and the Mandalorian. He’s either stalking the perimeter of the village, cleaning his weapon while keeping an eye on the child or walking quietly next to Omera.

You try shaking yourself mentally a few times, why were you feeling so attached to this man you’d hardly known before coming here? Why did you listen for his voice during the day? It was no use; your heart ached each time you saw him with her. Luckily, you were able to cuddle the child each time you caught yourself feeling pitiful. He almost seemed attuned to your moods, appearing with a soft coo almost out of thin air each time. Having Cara there was a help, not a hindrance, and as before the battle, you sat next to her at meals, and if she noticed the space between you and Mando, she was wise enough not to comment.

Cara wants to throttle you both. Or knock your heads together in an effort to drum sense into the two of you. You for your sad eyes and Mando for being so oblivious. She’s fully prepared to wash her hands of it all and go back to the tavern at the trade post were it not for her dreams. In them she sees herself kissing you, holding you close and Mando is there, his voice igniting a fire deep in her belly. She usually wakes drenched in sweat, aching fiercely for the two of you. It takes all her willpower to stop herself from pulling you behind the barn and kissing you senseless. She knows that while it would certainly help your mood, it wouldn’t solve the situation.

As Sorgan continues to circle its star, time passes and so it comes to the point where the work is done and you’re left to your own devices, trying to keep busy. The elders tried teaching you sewing, but beyond simple repairs, the threads simply tangle in your grasp. It’s a balmy evening, and you’re sitting on the step leading to the barn, polishing your knives for the thousandth time, watching the little one tracking a mudjumper. The gaggle of children also watching let out a chorus of ‘eeew’ as he pounced and did his best to fit the creature half his size into his mouth. It was repulsive, but in a way that you couldn’t take your eyes away from watching.

As such, you barely notice Omera emerge from the barn, only for her voice to spark alertness up your spine.

“Can I set you something in the house?” Warm, gentle, everything you’re not. How could you compete with that?

“Uh, thank you. Maybe later” Comes the husky reply from behind you.

A small pause and you sense a gaze on the back of your head for a moment, though you’re not sure who it belongs to.

“He’s very happy here” A smile in her voice, suggesting that the child isn’t the only one who’s happy.

“He is.” Brief, almost closed off like he doesn’t want to admit to his own happiness.

“Fit’s right in.” that’s definitely not about the child. Omera moves off at that, past you without a glance and off to her own house. Giving up on your current knife, you simply hold it loosely in your lap, gazing up to the sky as if it held answers to the questions you dared not ask yourself.

“So, what happens if you take that thing off?” Cara asks idly from her comfortable seat. “They come after you and kill you?

“No.” A pause and you’re not sure if he’ll continue, but he does. “You just can’t ever put it back on again.”

“That’s it?” Disbelief colours Cara’s voice, and you know that you’ve got the same expression on your face. That can’t be that bad, could it? Then again, you weren’t raised in the Creed of the Mandalore, you don’t really know what it fully means to him.

Cara’s feeling a bit petty and decides to push her luck. “So, you can slip off the helmet, and settle down with that beautiful young widow, and raise your kid sitting here sipping spotchka?” She carefully keeps her eyes on Mando but doesn’t miss the way your spine stiffens. Yet he doesn’t seem to notice your reaction, only giving her the driest look he can muster and decides to ignore her prodding.

“You know, we raised some hell here a few weeks back. It’s too much action for a backwater town like this. Word travels fast, we might wanna cycle the charts and move on.”

That sparks something in your chest but you’re feeling too mixed up inside to know how to respond. There’s a dull roaring in your ears that started when Cara talked about settling down with Omera, and so you miss what she says next. But the Mandalorians voice cuts through the haze in your vision and an icy pit settles inside.

“I’m leaving him here.”

You twist on the step, furrowing your brow at him in confusion. Cara glances at you but you’re focused on the man before you.

“Travelling with us, that’s no life for a kid” Mando says heavily, like the words are being pulled from him reluctantly. “I did my job, he’s safe. Better chance at a life.”

“It’s gonna break his little heart” She says sadly into her cup. You stand then, fastening your knife back to its holster, conflicting emotions running through you. Mando holds your gaze and it’s you who breaks it, turning away and scooping up the child who had stopped his chase-the-krill game and had come waddling over to you. As you walk away to walk the perimeter and calm down you barely hear his reply.

“He’ll get over it, we all do.”

A good walk to clear your head helps and the little one falls asleep against your chest once you’re feeling calmer. When you arrive back at the barn, Cara isn’t there and Mando is inside, a half-eaten meal next to him. Feeling guilty to interrupting, you put the child down gently in his cot and turn to go when he speaks up.

“What was that about?” You should have known he wouldn’t leave it alone. Taking a deep breath to settle your nerves, you face him.

“How can you leave him?”

“He’ll be safe here. This life of ours isn’t safe.”

“We’ll protect him!” you protest, a part of you thrilling at the words ‘our life’. “We’re best equipped for it!”

“You could stay here.” He offers, stunning you into silence. “I know that this wasn’t what you’d signed up for.”

There it was. The rejection. He didn’t want you with him even after offering you a job on Arvala-7.

You don’t respond to him, words warring inside your throat and your mouth dries up. The silence stretches between the two of you, tension pressing down on your shoulders. Your eyes sting, but don’t overflow, yet he notices, for you see the tension ease from his shoulders. He takes a gentle step towards you, then another, until he’s close enough to reach out and pull you to him. That’s nearly your undoing and you swallow back sobs over and over, throat tightening, until you can compose yourself long enough to bring your arms up around his waist, pressing your face into that warm space by his neck and just breathe for a moment. One of his hands gently rubs your back and you almost feel the rumble from his chest when he speaks.

“I didn’t mean to hurt you, I’m sorry”

“I don’t want to leave you, or the little one” You manage to whisper, and his arms tighten around you for a moment.

“You won’t” comes the reply. “We’ll figure something out tomorrow okay?”

Gently pulling back, you thump his arm.

“This is exactly what I signed up for, y’know?” You soften the blow by running your palm over his bicep. “Looking after you and the kid, picking up odd jobs here and there, that’s what I signed up to do”

A pause, while Mando just stares at you, his hand on your waist from holding you.

“Looking after me?” He clarifies tilting his helmet to one side, sounding amused.

“Well, I’m not the one running directly at AT-ST’s am I?” You grin up at him as you hear a groan from his vocoder.

“That’s only happened once” he laughed, finally removing his hand and stepping back, satisfied you’re no longer about to either murder him or break down.

The next morning you awaken with a fresh sense of purpose and set off into the forest after breakfast with the intent of gathering some fruits and berries, hoping to gather a decent stockpile for the Crest. Taking in lungful’s of the cool clean air, you relish it, knowing that soon you’ll be breathing recycled air, and taking sonic showers. Water is taken so much for granted you muse, in space it’s carefully hoarded for cooking and drinking only and only some of the truly luxurious ships have water for showering in.

It takes longer than you think to gather what you need, and the sun is high in the sky when you start heading back to the village.

That’s when you hear it.

The beeping.

A fob.

You immediately duck behind a bush, pulling your knife out in one movement. Ears straining for the location of the fob, your eyes scan wildly, desperate to find it.

A Kubaz.

They’re not far in front of you, far enough to have not heard you, and they’re looking towards the village through a rifle.

Shit. Shit shit shit _shit_.

Would you get there in time to stop the Kubaz?

Silently as you can, you stand and start advancing, knife ready to strike.

Soft footsteps.

You turn to see Cara, eyes hard as steel as she advances on the hunter, her blaster drawn. She glances briefly at you, then at your knife. Your blaster was back in the village, you had gotten lax in carrying it around. That would change.

_Bam!_

The gunshot rattles your ears, and sends the birds screaming from the trees.

The Kubaz slumps to the ground, hole smoking in their back.

Cara turns to you, eyes softening as she looks you over before the Mandalorian runs up to join you. He kicks the body to roll it over, revealing the fob.

Fobs.

There’s two of them.

He gathers them up and stares silently at them.

“Who’s he tracking?” Cara asks, looking like she’s expecting the worst.

“The Kid.” A beat. “And Yen.”

Ice floods your veins as they look to you. You’re on a fob? The hunter was after you as well as the child? Why didn’t he take you out while you were in the forest? Your mind whirled and you realise that he’d probably grab the kid then use your protective instincts to force you along. Dank Farrik.

“They know they’re here.”

“Yes.”

“Then they’ll keep coming.”

“Yes” Mando throws the fobs down with vicious anger and stops on them with a more force than necessary. The beeping finally stops, and your nerves settle slightly.

You all head back into the village, and see the folk milling around, fear etched into their brows. Mando quickly explains what happened, and that you need to leave. Today.

“We don’t know if any other hunters are here, and we don’t want to bring any more trouble here.” He says sadly, lingering over the words like they’re almost being torn from him. You head to the barn and start gathering up all of your possessions. Somehow it took longer than you’d expected, there were a few warm items of clothing that the people had given you in that soft deep blue that needed to be packed carefully away, and the child had gained a few items to either chew on or play with. Or both.

The skiff is loaded, and Cara has also packed up her belongings, intending to go back to the town. She doesn’t say it, but you know that she’d feel lost here without you and the Mandalorian.

“Are you sure you don’t want an escort?” She asks, smiling warmly at you then Mando.

“I appreciate the offer, but we’re gunna bypass the town and head right to the Razor Crest.” He answers for you, loading up one of the weapons crates.

“Well then.” She swings her bag onto her shoulder. “Until our paths cross” She extends her hand for him to clasp, as warriors do.

“Till our paths cross.” Mando replies warmly, taking her hand for as long as he dared before she turns to you.

“Yen” Is all she says before she gently cups your jaw and presses a warm kiss to your lips. Her lips are soft and warm and it’s over far too soon. She gently runs her thumbs over your cheek before she strides away, not looking back.

Dimly, you hear Winta crying softly, hugging the little one close to her.

Din steps away, towards Omera intent on saying something, but the words die in his throat as se gazes at him calmly.

“Thank you.” Is all she says in the end, there isn’t a hug or declaration of feelings, but it’s enough to convey her meaning.

You hop onto the skiff, still feeling the sensation of Cara’s kiss on your lips as you perch on a crate, one foot braced on the edge. The Mandalorian gathers up his last bag and his rifle and sits on the edge of the skiff, taking in the villagers one last time.

They all wave and you wave back for all of you, committing all of their faces to your memory, they were good people, and you were going to miss them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so so sorry for taking so long to write this and get it out. I had half of it written the day after I posted the last chapter, but then real life stuff happened and I wasn't able to get back to this. I've started writing some stuff for Jedi Fallen Order that got me back into the swing of things, and so today my muse took me hostage and got the other half of this chapter out of me


End file.
